Living Under God's Banner
Another in the Power Dynamics in Leadership Series
For a few years I spent a lot of time in the southeast, going to conferences, state legislatures, and helping to launch a ministry in Memphis, Tennessee. When travelling, I try to get a bead on what local small talk is like, non-political news and interests that often come up. As you may know already, SEC football is big down there.
I wasn’t surprised. I had (and still have!) a close friend from Alabama who is a Crimson Tide fan. Rivalries are huge in college football, and the Auburn/Alabama game was almost as big of a deal to my friend as the end of season playoffs for the national championship. Pretty quickly, you start to figure out that there are just two types of people in Alabama: Auburn fans and Alabama fans. It's best not to run afoul of that passion in idle conversation. Throughout the south you’ll find similar stories: Aggies vs. Longhorns, Clemson vs. South Carolina, Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State, etc. Sometimes it shifts (Duke vs. Kentucky or Kansas vs. Kansas State) based on the key sport in the region, but College sports are a pretty big deal for a lot of people.
It can get pretty intense, these sports rivalries. I see it in my baseball fandom where somehow because I root for the Cubs I’m supposed to hate White Sox and Cardinals fans just for being (don’t @ me here). Truth is, though, some of the best people I know root for the other team and that’s OK with me. I’d be very sad if my friend Jeremy thought I didn’t respect him because he roots for the Cardinals.
The next name of God we’re going to look at is Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my Banner. I’ve been wrestling with this one for a bit, trying to see both how it fits with God’s names and how it relates to God’s leadership and yours. It was a conversation with my wife that helped things to fall together where she noted that “banner” in the Old Testament context referred to what armies carried in their ranks for identification during battle.
The reference first appears in Exodus 17, where Moses refers to God this way after defeating the Amalekites.
When David is coming into his own and visits the battlefield and is ready to stand up to Goliath it’s because Goliath was mocking and defying “the armies of the living God”. By cowering instead of conquering Goliath, Israel wasn’t just tarnishing their own reputation, but Yahweh’s. David quickly showed that it wasn’t about the skill or size of the fighter or army, but the Banner they fought under. He, as still a boy, faced the giant because he knew Who really fought the battles: “Jehovah who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” When he faces Goliath he gives credit where it’s due: “This day Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head” (emphasis added)
When interacting with other sports fans, whether College Football or Major League Baseball or another major sport, I have heard many a fan refer to something a team should, did, or didn’t do in the first person. “We really trounced the <insert other team> on Monday night.” Our very identity is associated with our chosen team or tribe.
We’ve grown incredibly tribal in the United States and that’s led to an excessive amount of combativeness, as well as a dehumanizing of “the other side” on any particular “battlefield.” It makes me sad when I see the way people refer with venom to fans of key rivals. People often refer to fellow humans on the other side of the political aisle, a denominational squabble, a tax-bond issue, etc.. with disdain and anger. As hard as it is to watch, it’s worse to ignore the realities that exist.
What banners are you carrying other than the Name of Christ? How does your “fandom” or “membership” or political leanings affect how others see you? When you associate with a sports team, a political party, a movement, a denomination, a neighborhood or city or any group in a way that separates you from other human beings in a divisive way, you are fighting a war under the wrong banner. The player for the other team becomes a bad person because of his location or employment or education. The person who lives next door is seen as a good or bad person because of the sign on the lawn or who he or she voted for. The person in charge is declared good or bad because of their political party, not because of actions and words spoken.
Power and control are serious tools and easily become weapons. As a leader, you have power and control over others which inevitably leads to influence. Your influence, because of that power and control, becomes fear and intimidation if you are not careful. This means even the only important banner we fly, that of our Lord and Savior, which should represent peace and love and truth, can be perceived with fear by those you lead. Bad experiences with churches and Christians lead to fear. You, as a Christian leader should handle that apprehension with gentleness and understanding. We are not ashamed of the gospel, but need to be aware of the heavy baggage that others can associate with it. The banner of your God over you is love, it behooves us as leaders to show love joyfully and continually to those who are on our team, whatever banners they fly.
Do you reject things because your tribe opposes them, or because they are wrong and unjust? Are you willing to break from your tribe to support what is good and merciful and just, even if the tribal position is rejection of the group doing it? There are things going on all around us that are interpreted through a lens of tribalism instead of justice, and that changes how the world looks at Christianity and Jesus. The banners we mix with His can cloud other’s view of the Savior who brings reconciliation, justice, mercy and healing.
What should our presence look like? See Isaiah’s picture:
Pass through, pass through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway!
Remove the stones.
Raise a banner for the nations.
11 The Lord has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’”
12 They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the Lord;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.
(Isaiah 62:10-12, NIV emphasis added)
Our task is to raise a banner for the nations and when that’s done properly, we the Redeemed of the Lord will be called Sought After. Does that match what you see in your leadership and the way you see Christian leaders display the Banner? Sadly, from what I can see it does not.
But what is now is not forever. You, Christian leader, can raise a Banner of justice and mercy and truth and beauty that eschews all tribes and only pursues the unity and peace and purity of the Body of Christ, inviting others to feast with us on Jesus’ words and to be safe in His care.